Toughing it out

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Lovely, but it's not home ... Alita McMenamin, above in Pyrmont, developed a network of friends in Sydney by going out to see bands, but still misses Brisbane.Photo:Tamara Dean

Whenever Alita McMenamin flies back to Sydney from her home town of Brisbane, she feels unsettled.

The 31-year-old advertising account manager has lived in Sydney for six years but whenever she gets off the plane in Brisbane she feels "that whole emotional thing. I guess I call Brisbane home."

McMenamin was the first of her friends to move to Sydney after graduating from the Queensland University of Technology. "I rang most of the advertising agencies in Brisbane but the response wasn't encouraging. I always thought I'd probably have to move to either Melbourne or Sydney as most of the big agencies were based there."

McMenamin knew only one person in Sydney and found the going tough in the first few months. "You'd walk down the street and think the person ahead was someone you knew from Brisbane and it never was. I think part of it was just missing that familiarity."

McMenamin started going to hear bands by herself and then "developed a group of friends that I met through this common interest in music".

An expatriate community of Brisbanites also emerged, similar to Australian expatriate communities abroad. "If someone's brother or friend was moving from Brisbane to Sydney, I would get a call, asking to meet them for a drink or help them find accommodation. It's a good support network."

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McMenamin has seen many of this group move back to Brisbane, but she is staying - for now. "I've bought a house here and have stayed primarily for career reasons," she says.